Method and system for redeeming product marketing rebates

ABSTRACT

A system and method for processing product marketing rebate claims submitted by a consumer in satisfaction of a rebate offer, the consumer having purchased designated products in a qualified transaction recorded by a point-of-sale data processing and storage system that issues a receipt containing a corresponding transaction serial number. The method comprises providing a designated site of a computer information network and accessible by the consumer, and receiving a rebate claim on the designated site. The rebate claim comprises (i) the transaction serial number corresponding to the qualified transaction, and (ii) identifying information corresponding to the consumer. The transaction serial number and the identifying information is stored as a stored data record. An electronic file transfer is received from the point-of-sale data processing and storage system comprising purchase data records, each record comprising the list of products purchased and the transaction serial number for a qualified transaction in which at least one designated product was purchased. Each stored data record is associated with a purchase data record having an identical serial number, and the records are processed to validate the rebate claim. Finally, the value of the rebate offer is then transferred to the consumer. Consumer access by the designated site may be via the global computer information network or by telephone, and may also optionally integrate paper-based and smart/credit/debit-card-based rebate claims. A system for performing the above method is also claimed.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application claims priority based upon U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 60/154,087, filed on Sep. 15, 1999.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to the redemption of product marketing rebates,and more specifically to a business method for electronically redeemingproduct marketing rebates.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Product marketing rebates are well-known to most consumers and are anestablished weapon in the marketer's arsenal of methods to entice aconsumer to buy a product. Traditionally, manufacturers haveindividually offered rebates of a predetermined cash value to consumerswho buy a designated product and mail in a rebate claim that meetscertain criteria. Typically, this criteria includes filling out aspecific rebate form with the name and address of the consumer,enclosing a cash register receipt showing where and when the item waspurchased, and sometimes enclosing the Universal Product Code (UPC) orother designated portion of the product packaging to show that theproduct was actually consumed. After 6-12 weeks, the consumer thenreceives a check in the mail from the manufacturer or from a“fulfillment house” contracted by the manufacturer to administer therebate program.

The process of redeeming a rebate is one that can be time consuming forthe consumer, requiring the consumer to keep track of register receiptsand UPCs for each product, fill out forms, mail each form to a differentmanufacturer or fulfillment house, and cash each check that returns fromthe manufacturer or fulfillment house. Thus, because of the aggravationand work required to take advantage of rebates, many consumers choosenot to participate in such rebate offers at all. The purchasingdecisions of such reluctant consumers are therefore not influenced byrebates, much to the chagrin of product marketers.

Recently, however, certain retailers have offered to consumers theopportunity to bundle all their rebate claims in a single, easy-to-useform that can be sent to the retailer (or the retailer's fulfillmenthouse designee) to obtain rebates for all qualified items purchased atthat retailer. The rules of such consolidated rebate programs typicallylimit the customer to only one submission within a certain time period.Each submission generally requires the consumer to send in theretailer's pre-printed form, which identifies all the rebate offers by aspecific number, along with the original cash register receipt. Theconsumer must typically manually fill out the pre-printed form asdirected, circle the rebated items on the cash register receipt, andwrite each identifying rebate offer number next to each encircled itemon the receipt. Then, after what is still a 6-12 week period, thecustomer typically receives a check in the mail from the retailer forthe total amount of rebate offers fulfilled.

The consolidated rebate fulfillment method comprises a number of steps,many of which do not include the consumer. Referring now to theflowchart depicted in FIG. 1, the traditional consolidated rebatebusiness method is outlined. First, in step 10, the consumer makes apurchase at the point of sale (POS). Next, in step 20, the consumerchecks the appropriate boxes on the pre-printed form, writes in theconsumer's name and address, circles the appropriate entries on the cashregister receipt, hand writes the rebate offer numbers next to thoseentries, and mails in the form and attached receipts to the designatedaddress. In step 30, a fulfillment house, typically a contractor hiredby the retailer to administer the rebate program, processes thepaperwork received from the consumer. Finally, in step 40, the consumerreceives the check.

Step 30 includes many sub-steps. In step 32, a mailroom worker at thefulfillment house must first physically open the mail. Sometimes, inorder for the fulfillment house to ensure it has enough workers to meetthe turnaround deadlines guaranteed to the retailer, the fulfillmenthouse must somehow quantify the mail to be sure that it can be processedin time. Thus, the mail opening step may also include a mail quantifyingstep, such as a bulk weighing step where the total weight of theincoming offers is determined to estimate how many offers have beenreceived.

Next, in step 34, an order processing worker verifies that the productsencircled on the receipt match the rebate offer numbers indicated on thepre-printed form, verifies the date of the receipt is within thequalifying time period, and verifies other details (number of itemspurchased, etc.) to be certain that the consumer has met the initialcriteria for claiming the rebate. The order processing worker may alsorecord codes indicating the number of items requested for refund andrecord data for variable rebate offers. For example, if the refundamount is dependent on the number of items purchased, a code may berecorded indicating how many of the items were purchased. If the rebateamount is based on purchase price with designated minimum and maximumpurchase prices, the order processing worker may write down the amountto be refunded, either the actual purchase price if within the properrange, or the minimum or maximum as specified. If the consumer does notqualify for a particular rebate for which a claim was submitted, theorder processor may record a particular “unqualified” code indicatingthat the claim is unqualified and, optionally, a standard category ofreasons why the claim is unqualified.

A data entry worker then physically enters the data contained on theform into a computer database in step 36. This data may includeaccounting information such as the promotion number, the voucher number,the operator number, and mail count indicators; consumer personalinformation such as the name, address, state, and zip code; refundinformation, such as the total number of items and amount requested forrefund and the list of refund items; and supplemental information suchas the store number and unqualified codes, if present.

Thus, after data entry, the computer database now holds such data as thename and address of the consumer, the offer numbers for which theconsumer qualifies, and information relating to the number and types ofitems purchased. An audit step may also be performed after the orderprocessing step 34 and/or the data entry step 36 as quality control toassure that the number of errors have been minimized. Unqualifiedclaims, in particular, may be reviewed to assure that the claim isindeed unqualified. At step 38, the data entered into the computer isprocessed through a fraud detection step. Often, the fraud detectionstep encompasses processing the information using computer software thatcan verify, among other things, that the person named to receive therebate actually lives at the address given, that only one offer perhousehold address is being granted, and that the person named to receivethe rebate is not on a list of known fraudulent rebate claim submitters.Frequently, at least one or more components of the fraud detection stepmay involve using a third party computer database, such as databasesmaintained by the postal inspection branch of the U.S. Postal Service,which may be shared or utilized by many different fulfillment houses.The process from mail opening to inputting, verifying, and checking thedata may itself take several weeks, depending on the volume of mailbeing processed and the number of workers processing the rebate claims.The mail may also be retained in storage for a designated amount of timeand destroyed per a set mail retention guideline, thus requiring storagespace and destruction capabilities.

The information provided by the consumers who claim rebates can be usedby the retailer, if desired. For instance, the database of consumersclaiming rebates indicates the names and address of that retailer'scustomers who buy the type of items for which rebates were requested.Thus, the retailer can optionally use the database of names andaddresses compiled by the fulfillment house to target directedadvertising to these consumers. The retailer can conduct this directedadvertising itself and/or can sell the names and preferences of theseconsumers to other marketers, advertisers, and manufacturers who maywish to target those consumers. The database of consumers and theirbuying habits is also available to the fulfillment house, who may alsouse the information, provided their agreement with the retailers ormanufacturers allows them to do so.

The gathering, selling, and processing of marketing information aboutconsumers is a very profitable industry that is only partially tapped bysuch rebate programs. Because typically only the rebate-specificinformation is entered into the customer database from the cash registerreceipts supplied by the consumers, the information gathered during suchthe rebate fulfillment process is necessarily limited. To gatherinformation about every purchase that a consumer makes, many retailershave begun using “loyalty cards”. Loyalty cards are typically acredit-card-sized card that the consumer or cash register attendantswipes or scans into the POS cash register system prior to or during thecheckout process. The loyalty card typically contains a magnetic or UPCmarking that identifies the individual associated with that card,generally by a serial number contained on the card that matches to aspecific customer record in a separate customer database. As a conditionfor receiving a card from the retailer, the consumer usually mustprovide their name and address, as well as other demographic information(age group, household income, family size, etc.), so that a record ofpersonal information can be stored in a database and matched to the cardserial number. To entice the user to supply the loyalty card at the POSeach time the consumer purchases goods at the retailer, the retailerusually offers special discounts or offers only to card users. Throughthe use of a loyalty card, therefore, retailers can keep a frequentlyupdated data record of every purchase made by a particular consumer overtime.

By analyzing the data collected through the loyalty card system, notonly can the retailer identify individual consumers to be targeted forspecial offers, but the retailer can also analyze general demographictrends among large groups of purchasers to provide feedback on howpricing or other incentives affect consumer purchasing decisions. Adrawback of loyalty cards is that not every consumer is willing toparticipate, nor do the consumers always remember their card. In fact,many consumers know that even if they have forgotten their card, theymay request a temporary card at the service desk for the purposes ofreceiving the special offers that day, thus bypassing the retailer'ssystem of tying purchases to individual consumers.

Certain retailers have begun to tie rebate offers to their loyalty cardssuch that every qualified purchase (“qualified” meaning that thepurchase has a rebate associated with it) by a consumer using theloyalty card is tracked automatically by the retailer. At the end of adesignated period, the retailer then mails the customer a certificatethat can be applied to future purchases by the consumer only at thatretailer. In this way, the retailer has eliminated the paperwork for theconsumer who shops and uses the loyalty card, thus providing anincentive for the consumer not only to shop at that retailer'sestablishment, but also to use the loyalty card and, once thecertificate redeemable by the retailer is received, to return again toredeem the certificate.

Although the loyalty card-certificate system provides several advantagesover the consolidated rebate system in the form of less paperwork forthe consumer and for the retailer who coordinates the program, thedrawback is that such a system relies on a loyalty card. Althoughconsumers have come to expect that they need to carry a loyalty card to,for example, their grocery store, if every type of retailer were torequire a loyalty card, the consumer's wallet or pocketbook would soonbe bulging with loyalty cards for every retailer they patronize—drugstore, office supply store, toy store, computer store, department store,shopper's club, and so forth. Additionally, there is some financialburden on the retailer that is inherent in the administration of aloyalty card system.

Therefore, there is a continued need in the field to provide a methodfor redeeming product marketing rebates in a fast, cost-effective,consumer-friendly manner, and for allowing retailers to gather moreinformation about their customer's purchasing habits, without requiringa separate loyalty card to be entered as part of the transaction.Furthermore, it is desirable to provide a method that it is flexibleenough to accommodate multiple formats for rebate claims.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with this invention, there is provided a method forprocessing one or more product marketing rebate claims submitted by aconsumer in satisfaction of one or more rebate offers having a value,each rebate offer comprising an offer to provide a cash value in returnfor a purchase of one or more designated products. Purchase of the oneor more designated products occurs in one or more qualifiedtransactions, each qualified transaction having a transaction serialnumber assigned thereto. The transaction serial number is recorded in apoint-of-sale data processing and storage system and recorded on areceipt issued to the consumer. The rebate processing method comprisesproviding a designated site connected to a global computer informationnetwork and accessible by the consumer. A rebate claim is received onthe designated site, the rebate claim comprising (i) at least onetransaction serial number corresponding a qualified transaction, and(ii) identifying information corresponding to the consumer. A storeddata record is stored, comprising the at least one transaction serialnumber and the identifying information corresponding to the consumer. Anelectronic file transfer is received from the data processing andstorage system. The electronic file transfer comprises at least onepurchase data record comprising at least (i) the transaction serialnumber corresponding to the qualified transaction in which the at leastone designated product was purchased by the consumer, and (ii) anidentification of each designated product purchased by the consumer.Each stored data record is associated with a corresponding purchase datarecord having an identical transaction serial number, and the storeddata record and the corresponding purchase data record associatedtherewith are then processed to validate the rebate claim. Then, thevalue of the rebate claim is transferred to the consumer. The designatedsite may be accessible to the consumer by a computer connected to theglobal computer information network or via a telephone connected to acomputerized telephone answering system connected to the designated siteand accessible by calling a designated telephone number.

After making an initial rebate claim, the consumer may choose to delayprocessing of the rebate claim until one of: a future instruction by theconsumer to proceed, or expiration of the qualifying time period. Whenthe consumer chooses to delay completing the method until expiration ofthe qualifying time period, the consumer can subsequently access thedesignated site and transmit additional transaction serial numbersbefore expiration of the qualifying time period.

The receipt issued to the consumer may comprise a dedicated accountingof the one or more designated products having rebate offers purchased bythe consumer in the qualified transaction. The consumer may be issued aprimary receipt and a secondary receipt, wherein the secondary receiptconsists essentially of: a record of the serial number of the qualifiedtransaction and a dedicated accounting of only designated productshaving rebate offers. The primary receipt comprises an accounting of allpurchases by the consumer in the qualified transaction.

The above method may also be modified to allow at least one consumer totransmit information to the designated site over a global computerinformation network whereas at least one other consumer completes andmails a paper form to a fulfillment house administered by thefulfillment administrator and makes a rebate claim by providing theserial numbers of the qualified transactions and personal information onthe paper form. The fulfillment administrator, upon receipt of the paperform, accesses the designated site of the global computer informationnetwork, enters and transmits to the designated site the otherconsumer's personal information and the serial numbers corresponding tothe other consumer's qualified transactions, and stores as a stored datarecord the personal information and the serial numbers transmitted bythe other consumer.

In a further embodiment, at least one consumer may purchase the one ormore designated products using a smart card having a card number and acomputerized data storage means, at which time the transaction serialnumber is stored as computerized data on the smart card computerizeddata storage means. The consumer can then enter the one or moretransaction serial numbers and the personal information by using a smartcard reader to automatically download the computerized data representingthe stored transaction serial number and the card number from the smartcard into a card reader. In such case, the card number comprises thepersonal information from which the consumer can be identified. Thefulfillment administrator then transfers the cash value of the rebateclaims to the consumer by crediting the smart card.

In another embodiment, the consumer may purchase the designated productusing a designated card such as a credit card having a correspondingcredit account, a debit card having a corresponding bank or debitaccount, or a smart card having computerized data storage means. Thedesignated card is sponsored by the retail network and has a cardnumber. In such case, the fulfillment administrator receives in theelectronic file transfer from the POS system at least one transactiondata record comprising the designated card number and the correspondingtransaction serial number for the qualified transaction. The fulfillmentadministrator already has on file a stored data record comprisingpersonal information about each consumer indexed by the designated cardnumber, so the fulfillment administrator then associates the transactiondata record with the corresponding stored data record for the designatedcard number. The stored data record is updated with the transactionserial number, and the remainder of the method remains the same, exceptthat the cash value of the rebate claims may be credited to the consumerby crediting the corresponding credit account, the debit or bankaccount, or the smart card. The above data entry method using thedesignated card for data entry and transmission to the dedicated sitemay be integrated with the internet data entry and paper form data entrymethods.

The invention also comprises a system for processing a plurality ofproduct marketing rebate claims submitted by a plurality of consumers insatisfaction of a plurality of rebate offers in accordance with themethod of this invention. The system comprises a point-of-sale dataprocessing and storage system adapted to process purchases by consumersand to identify each qualified transaction with a serial number, and areceipt comprising a record of the serial number issued to each consumerby the point-of-sale data processing and storage system. The systemfurther comprises means for receiving rebate claim data in an electronicformat from the consumers, such as a designated site connected to aglobal computer information network and accessible to the consumersthrough the global computerized information network, or an interactivecomputerized telephone processing system accessible to the consumers ata designated telephone number. The rebate claim data for each consumercomprises at least one transaction serial number and a consumeridentifier. At least one electronic data storage and receiving device isconnected to the designated site for storing as a stored data record thedata for each consumer as received by the designated site and forreceiving and storing an electronic file transfer from the point-of-saledata processing and storage system. At least one data processor isconnected to the electronic data storage and receiving device and isadapted to associate each serial number in each stored data record witheach purchase data record containing an identical serial number, processeach purchase data record and associated stored data record to validateeach rebate claim, and check each validated rebate claim for fraud.Finally, the system comprises a transfer device for transferring thecash value of the rebate claims to the consumer.

The system may comprise at least one computer usable by the consumer toaccess the designated site on the global information network, such as acomputer located at the residence or place of employment of the consumeror at an establishment operated by the participating member, such as anin-store kiosk. The transfer device for transferring the cash value ofthe rebate claims to the consumer may comprise a smart card adapted toreceive debits and credits having cash value and means for crediting thesmart card with the cash value, or may comprise a check adapted to bemailed to the consumer.

The system may further comprise a paper form adapted for the personalinformation to be written upon the form and adapted to be enclosed in amailing to a paper form processor along with the one or more serialnumbers. The serial numbers may be written on the form, or merelyprovided in some form on the receipt or copies of the receipts mailedwith the form. In such case, the system also comprises a paper formprocessor capable of receiving the paper form and entering andtransmitting the personal information and the serial numbers to thedesignated site on the global computer information network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The invention is best understood from the following detailed descriptionwhen read in connection with the accompanying drawing. It is emphasizedthat, according to common practice, the various features of the drawingare not to scale. On the contrary, the dimensions of the variousfeatures are arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity. Included inthe drawing are the following figures:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart depicting a combined rebate method of the priorart.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting an exemplary combined rebate methodaccording to the present invention comprising an internet data entrymethod.

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration depicting an exemplary system of thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart depicting an exemplary paper-form data entrymethod capable of being integrated with the flowchart in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart depicting an exemplary card-based data entrymethod capable of being integrated with the flowchart in FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart depicting an exemplary combined rebate methodaccording to this invention comprising a card-based data entry method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

The invention will next be illustrated with reference to the figureswherein similar numbers indicate the same elements in all figures. Suchfigures are intended to be illustrative rather than limiting and areincluded herewith to facilitate the explanation of the apparatus of thepresent invention.

The invention comprises a method for processing one or more productmarketing rebate claims submitted by a consumer in satisfaction of oneor more rebate offers. A “rebate offer” comprises a promise by themanufacturer or the retailer to transfer a value to the consumer inexchange for a purchase of a designated product. The value transferredto the consumer may be in the form of cash value, such as a check, ormay be an article of manufacture such as a promotional item or a coupongood for a future purchase. As with any rebate method, the first step isfor the consumer to purchase one or more of the designated products froma participating member of a retail network that offers the rebateprogram.

Typically, a “participating member” comprises a single store in a“retail network” or chain of franchised or company-owned stores that areall operated under the same name. Where there is only a single store,however, the retail network comprises merely the single store itself,which, of course, is the sole participating member. Typically,coordinated rebate offers may be offered by retail networks thatcomprise a chain of similar stores selling similar goods under a singletradename. Other retail networks, however, may comprise a chain ofsimilar stores selling similar goods under different tradenames, such aswhere consolidation within the industry has combined formerlyindependent entities with established goodwill under differenttradenames in different geographic regions. Still other retail networksmay comprise dissimilar stores selling dissimilar goods under differenttradenames, either under the umbrella of a single parent company, oreven through the co-operation of multiple parent companies who form aco-operative for any number of purposes, including merely to consolidaterebate systems.

To qualify for the rebate, the purchases of items having rebate offersmust be made during a qualifying time period. The “qualifying timeperiod” may be infinite, but is usually finite in length, such as a oneor more months in duration, at which time another set of rebate offersmay be provided having a different qualifying time period. The use ofqualifying time periods is well-known in the art. The purchase of theitem having a rebate takes place during a “qualified transaction.” A“qualified transaction” is any transaction in which at least one producthaving an associated rebate offer is purchased by the consumer withinthe qualifying time period.

Thus, referring now to the flowchart in FIG. 2, the first step 100 inthe method of this invention comprises the consumer purchasing one ormore of the designated products from the participating member in one ormore qualified transactions recorded by a point-of-sale data processingand storage system. Each qualified transaction has a correspondingserial number recorded on a receipt issued to the consumer. Thepoint-of-sale data processing and storage system is any system known inthe art for recording and processing purchases at the point of sale.Such systems typically comprise a computerized system that receives dataeither by manual entry by an operator, or through scanning a UPCsupplied on the product packaging either by the manufacturer or by theretailer. Certain data processing and storage systems are known thatissue a corresponding transaction serial number or serialized code foreach transaction and print that serial number on the receipt issued tothe customer, sometimes as a barcode (UPC). This transaction serialnumber may then be used by the consumer when returning an item, for easyverification of the former purchase price. For the purposes of rebateoffer fulfillment, the corresponding transaction serial number may bethe same serial number typically issued by such point-of-sale dataprocessing and storage systems, or may be an entirely different numberissued solely for the purposes of keeping track of the rebate program.

Step 100 may further comprise providing on the receipt issued to theconsumer a dedicated accounting of the one or more designated productshaving rebate offers purchased by the consumer in the qualifiedtransaction. For example, a consumer may buy 50 items in a singletransaction, of which only 5 have associated product rebate offers. As areminder to the customer that they have qualified for rebates, adedicated accounting of just the rebate items may be provided in aspecial section of the receipt or in a separate receipt. Ideally, theconsumer may be provided with a primary receipt and a secondary receipt,wherein the secondary receipt consists essentially of a record of theserial number of the transaction and a dedicated accounting of onlydesignated products having rebate offers, whereas the primary receiptcomprises an accounting of all purchases in the qualified transaction,including items without associated rebate offers. The second receipt mayeven include information regarding how to make the rebate claim, such as“Your purchases of the items below today entitle you to receive a $5rebate. Access www. [retailer].com today and find out how!” Or, thesecond receipt may let the consumer know that more items can bepurchased to fulfill a certain rebate offer, such as “You purchased onebar of Brand X Soap today, purchase two more and receive a $1 rebate.”

Step 110 in FIG. 2 comprises the consumer accessing a designated site ofa global computer information network. A global computer informationnetwork, such as is commonly referred to in the art as the “Internet” or“World Wide Web,” contains any number of sites (“websites”) which a usermay access. It is well-known in the art for such sites to provideinformation for reading or downloading and to provide user interfaceswhere users may transmit information about themselves, a product order,a credit card number, and the like. The software required to providesuch information, and to accept and record such entries, is well knownin the art. The designated site as described in this invention isadministered by a fulfillment administrator, and typically comprises acomputer interface residing on a powerful computer server capable ofprocessing multiple requests from multiple uses simultaneously. The“fulfillment administrator” is any person authorized by the retailnetwork to process rebate claims. The fulfillment administrator may bean in-house employee of the retail network or a third-party independentcontractor. The term “fulfillment administrator” refers to the entity orentities responsible for processing the rebates, and as such includesanyone or anything under the control of that entity, such as but notlimited to workers, programmed computers, or third-party subcontractors.

The consumer then makes a rebate claim in step 120 by entering andtransmitting to the designated site (a) one or more serial numberscorresponding to the one or more qualified transactions, and (b)identifying information, such as personal information about theconsumer. Thus, the consumer can merely review the receipt issued by thepoint-of-sale data processing and storage system, and transcribe theserial number onto an electronic form provided by the designated site.The consumer can also enter identifying information, such as their nameand address, phone number, e-mail address, demographic information,and/or the like. At a minimum, the identifying information includesenough information to identify the consumer so that the rebate can beprovided to the customer in a later step. The fulfillment administratorthen stores the personal information and the serial numbers transmittedby the consumer as a stored data record in step 130. The data may bestored by any electronic means known in the art, which may include thesame computer server on which the designated site resides, or may be adifferent, interconnected data storage device to which the networkedcomputer can write and store data.

The fulfillment administrator also receives an electronic file transferfrom the point-of-sale data processing and storage system comprising aplurality of purchase data records, as indicated in step 140. Theelectronic file transfer may be in the form of a transfer across acomputer network, such as a global computer information network or adirect-dial, secure-access computer network, or may be in the form of atangible electronic storage device containing the electronic file. Eachpurchase data record comprises the list of products purchased, the date,and the transaction serial number for a qualified transaction in whichat least one designated product was purchased by any consumer. Thepurchase record may also comprise other data such as, for example, thestore number. This step may occur at any time from a time simultaneouswith the performance of step 100 to any time before step 150, such as oneach day at the end of the day's transactions by the point-of-salesystem, but may occur weekly or on another periodic basis, or may notoccur until the expiration of the qualifying time period. As oneadvantage of this method is the speed at which claims can be processed,however, the transfer of data preferably occurs on a periodic basisthroughout the qualifying time period, so that if certain customersdesire, their claims may be processed before the end of the qualifyingtime period. The list of products purchased in the purchase data recordtypically comprises all of the items purchased in the qualifiedtransaction, not just the rebate items, for reasons as described hereinlater. To minimize the size of the file to be electronicallytransferred, however, the purchase data record may be limited to onlyitems having rebate offers. Such a limitation requires software at thepoint-of-sale data processing and storage system to identify rebateitems, such as the software necessary to issue a secondary receipt asdescribed above.

In step 150, the fulfillment administrator then associates each serialnumber in the stored data record with a purchase data record having anidentical serial number. Thus, for each serial number transmitted by acustomer and stored as a stored data record, there is a correspondingpurchase data record with the identical serial number received byelectronic file transfer in step 140. The fulfillment administrator thenprocesses the purchase data record and the associated stored data recordto validate the rebate claim, such as by using computerized softwareoperated by or on behalf of the fulfillment administrator. For example,the computerized software matches UPC codes contained in the purchaserecord with a database of valid UPC codes that fulfill various offers.The software automatically verifies that the correct number of items waspurchased and that the date of the purchase was within the qualifyingperiod. The software can also automatically process variable rebateoffers by identifying the total amount based on the number of purchases,or by identifying the purchase price or substituting the maximum orminimum price if the purchase price is out of range. Thus, thecomputerized software automatically determines from the purchase datarecord exactly which product purchases have associated rebate offers,and keeps a running total of the total amount of rebates owed to eachcustomer.

The validated rebate claim preferably can then be checked for fraud,comparing the name and address of the consumer to known databases, as isknown in the art and described in the background section above. Thefraud-checking step can be performed in the same way as is known in theart for data entered by the fulfillment administrator from paper rebateclaim submissions. Optionally, this step may be omitted.

After the validated rebate has been cleared for issue, the fulfillmentadministrator transfers to the consumer the cash value of all rebateclaims satisfied by the consumer within the qualifying time period. Thecash value may be in form of a check made out to the consumer, a creditto a smart card, a credit to a bank or credit account, or a certificatefor redemption only at a participating member of the retail network. Asused herein, a “smart card” refers to a credit or debit card having datastorage means on the card, such as a magnetic strip and/or an integratedcircuit chip, the storage means capable of storing electronic data thatcan be read and written by a card reader/writer, allowing the card tostore, for example, a running account balance on the card itself. Suchcards are well-known in the art.

Because a consumer can come home immediately after making a purchase instep 100 and access the designated site in step 110, some consumers maywish to receive their rebate as soon as possible. Thus, the rebatemethod may further comprise the designated site interactively promptingthe consumer in step 120 to choose whether to proceed to method step 160immediately or to delay performing step 160 until (i) a futureinstruction by the consumer to proceed or (ii) expiration of thequalifying time period. In this way, a consumer who knows he or she willnot return to any store in the retail network during the remainder ofthe qualifying period, can release the information for processingimmediately. On the other hand, another consumer may prefer to transmitthe rebate information to the designated site as soon as he or shereturns from the store so as not to forget to do so for that receipt,but still may wish to wait to see whether he or she makes morequalifying purchases during the qualifying period before releasing theinformation for processing. In such case, the consumer may choose todelay further processing until further instruction or until the end ofthe qualifying time period. Therefore, if the consumer makes anotherpurchase, he or she can access the site again, enter additionaltransaction serial numbers, and either release the information at thattime, or choose to delay again. At the end of the qualifying timeperiod, the system automatically releases all stored information forprocessing. Thus, steps 110 to 130 can be repeated numerous times beforeadvancing to steps 150 and 160 (step 140 will occur at whatever intervalis designated by the retail network or fulfillment administrator,regardless of the timing of the other steps). In such case, eachadditional step 130 comprises modifying the stored data record toinclude the additional serial numbers.

When the consumer accesses the designated site a second or subsequenttime, the site may automatically recognize the consumer aftertransmitting only a portion of the personal information transmittedduring the first access session, such as the name and zip code only,phone number only, e-mail address only, or any other limited portion ofthe consumer's personal information as deemed necessary. During thefirst visit to the designated site, the customer may be able to choose ausername and password that can be entered during subsequent visits, andthus the username and password may constitute the partial informationentered to be recognized. In such case, the designated site mayinteractively fill-in the computerized form with the remainder of theirpersonal information upon entry of the partial information, or the sitemay prompt the consumer with a menu of addresses having the same nameentered. From this menu, the consumer may merely choose which personalinformation is his or hers, and no further entry of personal informationmay be necessary, except to modify any information as necessary. Thepartial personal information transmitted by the consumer may require noentry at all, but instead may merely comprise information automaticallytransmitted by the consumer, such as a “cookie” saved on the consumer'scomputer from a previous visit to the designated site. The use of“cookies” in a global communications network is well-known in the art.

Recognizing the consumer on subsequent visits may be used in conjunctionwith the method where the consumer may enter multiple serial numbersduring multiple access sessions within the same qualifying time period,or can also be used where the same consumer makes rebate claims undermultiple programs within different qualifying time periods. Thus, asingle consumer may only have to enter personal information into thesystem a single time. This single entry may be for a single retailnetwork, or, because the fulfillment administrator may service severaldifferent retail networks each having different coordinated rebateoffers, the single entry of personal information may establish anaccount with the fulfillment administrator that may be used for multipleretail networks. Thus, a consumer entering an internet rebate claim fora drug store chain by accessing that drug store chain's website maylater access an office supply store's website and find that they do notneed to enter detailed personal information again. This may occur wherethe same fulfillment administrator services both retail networks and thepersonal information data is shared across both rebate programs. Inaddition to having a streamlined entry process available to the customerfor subsequent entries, the customer on a subsequent visit may furtherbe able to check the status of a pending rebate submission, check theiraccount history, or have a choice of other options.

It should be understood here that the “designated site” accessed by theconsumer may be accessed in a number of ways. For example, the consumermay access the designated site by accessing a menu choice on a websiteof the retail network offering the rebate program. The consumer may alsoaccess the designated site by accessing the fulfillment administrator'swebsite directly. Certain manufacturers may also wish to provide linksfrom the manufacturer's website to retailers or fulfillmentadministrators that offer their rebates to consumers. Thus, although thedesignated site may appear to the consumer to be a part of, forinstance, a drug store's website, it may in fact be the fulfillmentadministrator's website that is merely linked to the drug store'swebsite. The manner in which the consumer actually accesses thedesignated site is immaterial to this invention. It should also be notedthat although the designated site is necessarily connected to the globalcomputer information network, access to the system does not necessarilyhave to occur through that network. For example, an in-store kiosk maybe directly linked to the designated site or, where the fulfillmentadministrator enters data from a paper form submitted by the consumer,the fulfillment administrator may be directly linked to the designatedsite without the need to first access the internet or world wide web. Adirect link to the designated site may provide a more secure connectionthan a connection through the internet, which may also be appealing tocertain consumers wishing to take advantage of an in-store kiosk. Accessto the designated site may also be by telephone without the use of acomputer terminal, as will be discussed herein later.

From the information submitted by the consumer, the fulfillmentadministrator may compile a marketing record for each consumer, as shownin step 135 of FIG. 2. Each marketing record may comprise the personalinformation about the consumer and one or more consumer purchasingpreferences derived from the purchase data records of the qualifiedtransactions for which the consumer transmitted the corresponding serialnumber in step 120. A “consumer purchasing preference” may be simply thefull list of items purchased during the qualifying transaction, or itmay be information sifted from the purchase data record after analysis.For example, the consumer purchasing preference may show that theconsumer is a good candidate for cat products, based on information inthe purchase data record showing purchase of cat food. This marketingrecord may then be provided to a marketing agent, such as a marketingagent of the retail network who may then target the consumer to receivespecial offers related to products or types of products that theyroutinely purchase. The marketing agent may optionally be thefulfillment administrator or someone authorized by the fulfillmentadministrator to perform such services, a product manufacturer, or athird party having an interest in consumers with certain purchasinghabits.

Although in the examples described above, step 110 comprises a consumeraccessing the designated site via a personal computer, presumably at theconsumer's home, the simple fact remains that not every consumer can beexpected to have a computer with internet access, nor can every consumerbe expected to want to use an internet-based system. Thus, step 100 maycomprise not only a consumer accessing the designated site from his orher own computer, but also accessing the designated site from a computerlocated at the retail network, such as in an in-store kiosk. An in-storekiosk typically comprises essentially a computer or computer terminalthat provides access to the designated site along with an interactivedata entry system, perhaps in a format more user friendly to lessinternet-savvy consumers. In one embodiment, the designated site may belocated merely on a computer information network that is not globallyaccessible by the internet, but rather accessible only through suchin-store kiosks or other designated portals within a limited network.

Also, the present method may also be used in conjunction with a paperrebate-claim system. In such a system, a plurality of consumers makepurchases and are issued receipts having serial numbers as describedabove. Also, similar to the process shown in FIG. 2, at least oneconsumer accesses the designated site of a global computer informationnetwork and makes a rebate claim by entering and transmitting the serialnumbers of the qualified transactions and personal information to thedesignated site. The fulfillment administrator stores as a data recordthe personal information and the serial numbers transmitted by the oneconsumer.

Additionally, at least one other consumer may complete and mail a paperform to the fulfillment administrator using a paper-form data entrymethod depicted in FIG. 4. This consumer makes a rebate claim in step400 by recording personal information on the paper form and alsoproviding the serial numbers of the qualified transactions. The serialnumbers may be provided by writing them on the paper form, or moreadvantageously, the receipts or copies of the receipts may be enclosedwith the form. The form and serial numbers are then mailed to thefulfillment administrator in step 410. The fulfillment administrator,upon receipt of the paper form, then accesses the designated site of theglobal computer information network in step 420, enters and transmitsthe other consumer's personal information and the serial numberscorresponding to the other consumer's qualified transactions in step430, and stores as a stored data record in step 440, the personalinformation and the serial numbers transmitted to the designated site.For receipts having the serial number encoded thereon as a barcode, thefulfillment administrator may reduce processing time by scanning-in theserial number via a barcode scanner. A bit-scanner coupled withaalphanumeric recognition software known in the art may also be used toincrease processing time, the scanner being used to scan in numberseither from the paper form or from the receipt or copy of the receipt.The stored data record thus created by the fulfillment administrator isessentially the same as if the consumer had created it himself orherself by internet access, except that as part of personal information,there may be background or demographic information related to how thedata was entered.

The remaining steps are the same as described above and shown in FIG. 2,in that the fulfillment administrator receives an electronic filetransfer from the point-of-sale data storage system comprising aplurality of purchase data records; associates each serial number ineach stored data record to each purchase data record containing anidentical serial number: processes each purchase data record andassociated stored data record to validate each rebate claim, and checksfor fraud; and transfers the cash value of the rebate claims to theconsumer.

Yet another way for a customer to access the designated site of theglobal computer information network and to provide rebate claim data inan electronic format, is by telephone. Once a data record has beenestablished for that consumer either through entry of informationthrough the global computer information network via a home terminal or akiosk, or through paper submission, the consumer may then make asubsequent rebate claim by telephone. Thus, for example, the first timea consumer enters information via submission through the global computerinformation network, the customer may be given a customer number and anumeric password. The customer number may, for example, be theconsumer's phone number, social security number, or the like, or merelyan arbitrary or meaningful assigned or customer-selected number. Thenumeric password may be selected by the consumer or assigned. Forsimplicity, the customer number and password may be the same usernameand password used for access via the global computer informationnetwork, or the customer may have an alphanumeric username and passwordfor use via computer and a numeric username and password for use bytelephone. Where a consumer's first entry is by paper submission, areturn mailing may be sent to the customer or the customer may becontacted by telephone to provide them with their customer number andnumeric password. Once the customer has a customer number and numericpassword, the customer may then place a telephone call to apredetermined number, such as a toll-free number, where the customer cansubmit rebate entries by telephone.

Connected to the predetermined telephone number is an interactivecomputerized telephone processing system as are commonly known in theart, such as are used for voice-mail access, brokerage or benefits-plansaccess. Upon reaching the interactive computerized telephone processingsystem, the customer may be presented with a menu of choices, one ofwhich is to enter a customer number and password. The requested data isreceived by the designated site, such as in the form of the tonesgenerated by the numeric keys of the touch-tone telephone, as iswell-known in the art, or through the use of voice-recognition softwareas is also well-known in the art for recognizing spoken responses givenby the caller. It should be noted here that the interactive computerizedtelephone processing system may be directly connected to or integral tothe designated site, or may be remotely connected to the designated sitethrough the global computer information network and adapted to transmitthe information entered by the telephone to the designated site. In analternative embodiment, the interactive computerized telephoneprocessing system may be a stand-alone system not connected to adesignated site on the global computerized information network at all.Upon entering the customer number and password successfully, thecustomer may be presented with a further menu of choices, one of whichis to enter a transaction code corresponding to a receipt from aqualified transaction. The transaction code information is then storedin the storage device and processed in the same manner as submissionssubmitted by paper or by electronic submission by computer. Other menuchoices, once a customer has successfully entered the customer numberand password, may include, for example but not limited to, release of apreviously-entered set of qualified transaction codes for furtherprocessing, checking the status of a pending, previously-submittedrebate submission, changing the password, or talking to a servicerepresentative.

One advantage to using the customer's phone number as the customernumber for telephone entries is that existing caller identificationtechnology can be employed to automatically detect the customer numbergiven the telephone number from which the customer is dialing. Thus, thefirst menu choice may be to merely enter the password if the customer iscalling from the telephone number corresponding to their customernumber, or to enter, for example, an asterisk plus their customernumber, if the customer is not dialing from the telephone numbercorresponding to their customer number.

In another embodiment of this invention, a method for electronicprocessing of rebate claims may integrally incorporate the use of adesignated card, such as a smart card, credit card, or debit card. Useof the designated card by the consumer, in particular a card issued bythe fulfillment administrator acting as an umbrella for a large retailnetwork of otherwise unrelated retailers, may trigger automatic accessof the designated site on behalf of the consumer. Thus, for a consumerusing a designated card, the consumer may automatically make a rebateclaim for any product purchased with the card. Such automatic access mayoccur from the POS data processing and storage system without furtheraction by the consumer as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, which are explainedherein later. In the case of a smart card which has data storagecapacity on the card, the smart card may instead receive and store datafrom the POS system, such as the transaction serial number, and theconsumer may then access the designated site in step 110 as shown inFIG. 2, and automatically enter the serial number data and personalinformation in step 120 via insertion of the smart card in a cardreader/writer. The data may then be transmitted to the designated sitewithout manual entry by the consumer. If the consumer has a refundwaiting at the designated site to be credited to his card from aprevious rebate claim submission, the credit can also be written to thecard while during such a procedure.

For either a smart card or for standard credit or debit cards withoutdata storage capacity, merely using the card at the POS system maytrigger an automatic download of the card number and the transactionserial number to the designated site, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. Such acard-based data entry method may be integrated with the internet dataentry and paper-form data entry methods described and shown above inFIGS. 2 and 4. As depicted in FIG. 5, a card based data entry methodsimply comprises the POS system transmitting a transaction data recordto the fulfillment administrator in step 500. Such a transmission may bepart of the electronic file transfer of purchase data, or may occurimmediately, at the end of a day's transactions, or at some otherperiodic interval as a separate file transfer. The designated site,having a record of the credit card number linked to the consumer'spersonal information, may then in step 510 create or update theconsumer's stored data record to reflect the transaction serial numberfor which the designated card was used. On the other hand, because thepurchase data includes the card number, the stored data record maycomprise only the consumer's personal information including the cardnumber, and each purchase record may be associated with the stored datarecord only by card number. The designated card may then beautomatically credited with the rebate cash value upon processing of therebate claim. In the case of a smart card, the card reader/writercredits the card during a subsequent data transfer step; in the case ofa debit card, the associated bank or debit account is credited; and inthe case of a credit card, the credit account is credited.

The designated card method used on its own without integration with theother data-entry methods provides optimal minimization of steps in therebate fulfillment process. In the stand-alone method, the consumerpurchases the designated products using the designated card in step 600.In step 610, the point-of-sale data processing and storage systemtransfers the purchase data record to the fulfillment administrator byelectronic file transfer. The electronic file transfer comprises (i) thetransaction serial number, (ii) the designated card number, (iii) thetransaction date (where there is a fixed expiration date for the rebateoffer), and (iv) the list of products purchased by the consumer. As thefulfillment administrator already has on file a stored data recordcomprising personal information about each consumer indexed by thedesignated card number, the fulfillment administrator then may (i)associate the purchase data record with the stored data record, (ii)process the purchase data record and corresponding stored data record tovalidate the rebate claim, and (iii) optionally, check for fraud in step620. Finally, in step 630, the fulfillment administrator credits thedesignated card with the cash value of the rebate claims by creditingthe credit card, debit card, or bank account, or crediting the smartcard. Because the purchase data record used in this method already hasthe consumer's personal information in the form of the card number thatmay be associated with the stored data record that holds the consumer'sother information such as name, address, and the like, the stored datarecord does not need to be updated with new information as a result ofthe transaction, unlike the method depicted in FIG. 2. Instead, thefulfillment administrator merely stores the purchase data record and canassociate the purchase data record with the stored data record via thecard number, rather than by the transaction serial number.

Where the rebate offer typically requires only one consolidated rebateclaim submission per qualifying period, the rebate claim may beprocessed at the end of the qualifying period, or the rebate rules mayallow processing of multiple rebate claims for consumers using the card(the particular number of rebate claims per specific item still beinglimited by manufacturer's rebate rules). Thus, each time the card isused for a rebate item, the rebate claim method may proceed in full.

The rebate redemption method involving use of a designated card may beintegrated with the internet-based and/or paper-form-based data entrymethods, wherein the stored data record for each consumer may be updatedby use of the card, consumer access of the designated site, or thefulfillment administrator accessing the designated site after receipt ofa paper form from the consumer. Thus, different consumers participatingin a single consolidated rebate offer may have a choice of at leastthree different ways of claiming their rebate: (i) accessing thedesignated site themselves either via a home internet connection or viaan in-store kiosk, (ii) using a designated card, or (iii) sending in apaper form. Similarly, where a consumer uses the designated card for onequalified transaction, but uses a different means of payment for another qualified transaction, the consumer may enter the serial numberfor the other qualified transaction via internet access or the paperform methods. The common end result of the transaction serial number andpersonal information being stored as a stored data record via all threedata entry methods prevents duplicate entries from being validated andallows interchangeability and integration of the methods.

A particular benefit of the designated card entry system is that theretail network may comprise a number of unrelated retail chains that cancontract with a single fulfillment administrator to track purchasesusing the designated card to automatically qualify for refunds. Suchretailers may also contract with the fulfillment administrator toadminister consolidated rebate claims via the Internet and papersubmission as described above. Thus, a consumer may be able to use hisor her card at any of several retail establishments to automaticallyreceive refunds credited to his or her account regardless of at whichretailer the product was purchased. Such a card preferably may also beacceptable for universal use as a standard credit or smart card even atretailers that are not members of the network, as long as the retaileraccepts the particular brand of card, such as VISA®, MASTERCARD®,AMERICAN EXPRESS®. DISCOVER®, DINERS CLUB®, or the like. The automaticrebate claim offers an incentive for the consumer to use the card asoften as possible, even if the consumer is unaware of pending rebateoffers, just in case the transaction is a qualifying transaction. Thekey to a consumer getting a rebate via use of the card, however, is thatthe retail establishment must share the transaction serial code datawith the fulfillment administrator. Thus, the consumer also hasincentive only to shop at participating members of the retail network,thus providing incentive for retailers to become part of the retailnetwork.

Use of the designated card may trigger a purchase data record to be sentto the fulfillment administrator even where no rebate item waspurchased. Thus, because the list of all purchases may be collected forconsumers using the designated card, the purchasing profile collectedfor that consumer may be broader than provided by the internet-based orpaper-form-based data entry methods, and thus the marketing record maybe more valuable.

Among the advantages of the designated credit, debit, or smart carddata-entry method over the collection of purchasing data and processingrebate claims via a loyalty card, is that the designated card isacceptable as legal tender beyond just the members of the retailnetwork. In this way, the need for a consumer to carry multiple loyaltycards may be eliminated. Furthermore, the credit received to thedesignated card or corresponding account is usable beyond the retailnetwork providing the card.

Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown schematically an exemplarysystem 2000 of the present invention. System 2000 comprises apoint-of-sale data processing and storage system 210 adapted to processpurchases by consumers 200 and to identify each qualified transactionwith a serial number 225. As shown in FIG. 3, consumer 200 conducts aqualified transaction by making a payment 205, such as by cash, check,credit card, debit card, smart card 292, food stamps, gift certificate,or any at form of legal tender recognized in commerce. System 2000further comprises a receipt 220 issued to each consumer by point-of-saledata processing and storage system 210, each receipt comprising a recordof serial number 225. System 2000 further comprises a global computerinformation network 230 having at least one designated site 240connected thereto and adapted to receive data from the plurality ofconsumers, the data for each consumer comprising one or more serialnumbers of qualified transactions and personal information about theconsumer. Thus, consumer 200 can access designated site 240 throughglobal computer information network 230 so that he or she may enter andtransmit the serial numbers and personal information. Consumer 200 mayaccess network 230 in any number of ways, such as, for example via acomputer, such as a computer 233 located at the residence or workplaceof the consumer or an in-store kiosk 236 provided by a retail network,or via a telephone 237 connected to an interactive computerizedtelephone processing system 238.

System 2000 further comprises an electronic data storage and receivingdevice 250 for storing, as a stored data record, data for each consumeras received by designated site 240 and an electronic data storage andreceiving device 260 for receiving and storing an electronic filetransfer from point-of-sale data processing and storage system 210.Devices 250 and 260 may be separate devices as shown in FIG. 3, orintegral portions of a single electronic data storage and receivingdevice. The electronic file comprises a purchase data record for eachqualified transaction involving at least one designated product. Eachpurchase data record includes transaction serial number 225. At leastone data processor 270, such as computer software located on a computer,associates each serial number in each stored data record with eachpurchase data record containing an identical serial number and processeseach purchase data record and associated stored data record to validateeach rebate claim. Devices 250, and 260, as well as processor 270 and/ordesignated site 240, may all be integral portions of a single computeror server, or may be connected parts of a computer network. Such acomputer or server may typically be housed at the offices of thefulfillment administrator, or may be operated offsite on the fulfillmentadministrator's behalf by a computer service subcontractor, or portionsmay be located at different facilities and connected together eitherthrough dial-up means, direct lines, or the global computer informationnetwork. Storage and receiving devices 250 and 260 may include diskdrives, tape drives, CD-ROMs, or any other means for storing electronicinformation known in the art.

System 2000 also may comprise a data processor 280 for checking forfraud. Data processor 280 may also be located within a single computeror server or housed and operated in the same location as site 240,devices 250 and 260, and processor 270, or may be operated by aremotely-located third party. Data processor 280 may comprise anycomputer hardware and/or software known in the art. Where thefraud-checking data processor 280 is operated by a third party, anelectronic file transfer of data is made to processor 280, whichevaluates the data, and returns a report indicating any fraudulent orpotentially fraudulent entries.

Finally, system 2000 comprises a transfer device 290 for transferringthe cash value of the rebate claims to the consumer. As shown in FIG. 3,transfer device 290 is connected to processor 270 because, for example,the computer software that validates the rebate claim may thenautomatically transfer the cash to the consumer in some form. Transferdevice 290 may comprise a smart card 292 adapted to receive debits andcredits having cash value and means 294 for crediting the smart cardwith the cash value, such as a card reader/writer 294, shown in FIG. 3in communication with POS system 210. Thus, for instance, where smartcard 292 can be credited and debited by the retailer who offers thecoordinated rebate program, the cash value may be transferred to theretailer who can then credit the consumer from the point-of-sale system210 during the next visit. In the alternative, card reader/writer 294may be in communication with home computer 233 or kiosk 236 such thatthe consumer may access designated site 240 via either the home computeror the kiosk and receive the credit. In the alternative, the means fortransferring the cash value may be in the form of a credit of funds toan account 298 such as a bank account, debit account, or credit cardaccount, in the form of a physical embodiment 296 such as a check orgift certificate mailed to the consumer, or in the form of any legaltender known in commerce.

In accordance with the method described above, system 2000 may furthercomprise a paper form 300 adapted for consumer 200 to write the requiredpersonal information upon the form and enclose the form in a mailing 305along with the one or more serial numbers to a paper form processor 310.The serial numbers may be written on the form or enclosed on thereceipts or copies of the receipts, and may be encoded as a barcode onthe receipt or copy. Paper form processor 310, such as the fulfillmentadministrator and any associated processing apparatus such as a barcodescanner or other type of automatic coding means, then can receive thepaper form and/or receipts and enter and transmit the personalinformation and the serial numbers to designated site 240. Again, accessto site 240 may be through global computer information network 230, or,as shown in FIG. 3, direct.

It should be apparent that the present invention offers many benefitsover the system of the prior art. One important benefit is that the timerequired to process rebate claims can be compressed from several weeksto a matter of days. Assuming that the fulfillment administrator hasalready received the electronic file transfer of purchase data by thetime the consumer enters the serial numbers and personal information,the check can be cut the same day the data is received, wherein the onlydelay before receipt by the consumer stems from the mail delivery time.Thus, payment methods to the consumer such as crediting bank accounts tocredit cards may occur the same day as the information is released.

Because the internet-, telephone-, and card-based methods comprise nomanual steps, there are great cost savings in eliminating the steps ofopening mail and entering data manually. Although in one embodiment, themethod still allows for some paper based claims, the number ofpaper-based claims is minimized, thus greatly reducing the staff neededto process claims. There is also less cost to the consumer in theavoidance of postage, envelopes, and optional photocopies needed tosubmit a paper entry.

Another benefit inherent in the elimination or reduction of manualentries made by the fulfillment administrator is a reduction in dataentry errors. Although an individual consumer can still make an errorkeying in information, the consumer is more likely to catch errors uponreview, as the consumer has only one entry to review, not thousands aday. Furthermore, data processors transcribing data handwritten on paperforms may have to contend with difficulty in reading the consumer'shandwriting or even with a language barrier, as the relatively cheaplabor required to make such processing affordable may occur outside ofthe country and/or outside the native language in which the rebateclaims originate. Neither of these problems is present with internet-,telephone-, or card-based rebate claims.

Also, retailers using the method of this invention may enjoy a reductionin fraudulent activity. Because the individual serial numbers for eachqualified transaction are unique, a fraudulent consumer cannot justmanufacture any authentic-looking cash register receipt and successfullyclaim a rebate. Similarly, because the standard serial number issued byPOS systems known in the art is also entered during returns of items,consumers purchasing a rebatable item, returning it, and still trying toclaim a refund will be identified by the serial number of thetransaction. Even if a consumer were to receive the check and thenreturn the item after having check-in-hand, that consumer can beidentified as someone who has fraudulently claimed a rebate once, andthus can be entered into the fraud checking database for the next time.

Because of the computerized nature of the method, the consumer may beable to get a status check on his or her refund claim 24-hours a day,merely by accessing the designated site. The designated site, uponrecognizing the consumer from whatever personal information is required,can provide a status check telling the consumer exactly what data hasbeen entered so far, whether that data has been released for the nextstep in the method, if it has been released, at what step in the methodit currently resides (fraud check, check printing, etc), and on whatdate, for example, the check was printed, funds were wired to the bankaccount, or funds were wired to the retailer for updating a smart cardupon the next visit.

Another added benefit may be enjoyed by the retailers and thefulfillment administrators, who, through the use of this method ofrebate fulfillment, are able to put names and addresses with purchasingpatterns far beyond just products having rebates, without requiring useof a loyalty card. The ability to analyze purchase data to createmarketing lists of customers with particular purchasing habits, makesthe rebate process more profitable to the retailer and/or to thefulfillment administrator, through the ability to market the customerlists to third parties.

Retailers, the fulfillment administrator, and even product manufacturersproviding the rebate offers, may also be able to access the storedinformation via telephone or the global computer information network toanalyze activity related to the rebate offer. Each party may havedifferent levels of authorized access. For example, a productmanufacturer may have an alphanumeric username and password for entryover the Internet and/or a numeric customer number and password forentry over the telephone, that allows that manufacturer access toinformation regarding how many rebate offers have been processed fortheir particular product in a particular time frame. The manufacturermay also be able to receive, via the Internet, a data file listing thenames and addresses of people who have submitted entries for themanufacturer's product. The retailer may similarly have access codesallowing them access to information or reports related to all rebateoffers submitted related to their retail establishment. The fulfillmentadministrator may have access to information and reports related to allrebate offers for all such retailers.

Finally, the ease of use of this method, coupled with the fastturnaround and less cost to the consumer, encourages increased rebateclaims, increased purchases of rebate items, and increased patronage ofretailers offering the method of this invention for rebate fulfillment.The increase in rebate claims combined with the increase in purchasinginformation provided about each consumer, increases the value of theconsumer information gathered by this method.

In addition to the method and system embodiments provided herein, theinvention also comprises a computer program product comprising at leastone program storage device, such as computer software, readable by amachine, such as computer hardware, tangibly embodying a program ofinstructions, such as computer code, executable by the machine toperform the method steps for processing a product marketing rebate claimas described herein. The invention may comprise a single program storagedevice readable by a single machine, or a plurality of discrete programstorage devices, each readable by a different machine, the machinesbeing linked to one another. Such program storage devices may processthe transfer of funds to the consumer by directly electronicallytransfer funds to the consumer in the form of a credit to a smart card,bank account, or credit card, or may merely print a check orcertificate, which is then mailed to the consumer.

It should also be recognized that although the various methods describedherein have been described primarily for use in conjunction with oneanother in a combined offering, each method may stand alone and stillprovide benefits over existing processes. Thus, in its most basic form,the invention comprises a method for processing a rebate claimcomprising receiving from a consumer the transaction serial code of thetransaction during which the rebate item was purchased, and thenmatching that code with a data record containing that code and the listof rebate products purchased, as provided by the point-of-sale dataprocessing system. The transaction serial code may be received viaaccess to a global computer information system, by telephone or througha computer such as a home computer or a kiosk, via direct telephoneaccess or direct computer access, or by a paper mailing. An e-mailcontaining the transaction serial code could also sent to a designatede-mail address without navigating the Internet through a browser. Thepaper mailing method may be further enhanced by the use of a designatedpostcard that may be processed by a data processor without having toopen envelopes, saving yet another step over existing processes. Suchpostcards may further be adapted to be received by automated postcardprocessing equipment to automatically position the postcard where a dataprocessor can read and enter the data, and then index to a next cardupon the command of the data processor. Document processing equipmentfor providing such process steps is well known in the art.

Those skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings of thepresent invention as set forth hereinabove, can effect numerousmodifications thereto. These modifications are to be construed as beingencompassed within the scope of the present invention as set forth inthe appended claims.

1.-40. (canceled)
 41. A method of using a rebate computer processingsystem to process a rebate claim associated with a purchaser of one ormore promoted products in an identified purchase transaction processedby a point of sale processing system, the purchase transaction having aunique transaction identifier provided to the purchaser as part of areceipt for the transaction, the unique transaction identifierindependent of any identification of the promoted products, the methodcomprising the steps of: (a) receiving in the rebate computer processingsystem information relating to one or more promotional offers associatedwith the promoted products, including a value associated with eachpromotional offer; (b) receiving in the rebate computer processingsystem information including at least the unique transaction identifierand a product code for at least each promoted product purchased in theidentified transaction; (c) after the purchase transaction, receiving inthe rebate computer processing system a rebate claim submitted via acommunications network, the rebate claim comprising a submission thatincludes at least the unique transaction identifier in association withinformation identifying the purchaser, wherein the unique transactionidentifier is extracted electronically from the receipt or from a copyof the receipt; (d) after receipt of the rebate claim, comparing withthe rebate computer processing system the product code for each promotedproduct purchased in the identified transaction against the informationrelating to one or more promotional offers, and determining thecollective value associated with any promotional offers applicable tothe one or more promoted products purchased in the identifiedtransaction; and (e) providing the purchaser with the collective value.42. The method of claim 41, wherein the unique transaction identifier isextracted electronically from the receipt or the copy via scanning of anelectronic code.
 43. The method of claim 42, wherein the electronic codecomprises a bar code.
 44. The method of claim 41, wherein at least theunique transaction identifier is extracted electronically from thereceipt or the copy using alphanumeric recognition software to convertalphanumeric information on the receipt into stored electronic data. 45.The method of claim 44, wherein the step of extracting the uniquetransaction identifier electronically from the copy of the receiptcomprises extracting the information from a copy of the receiptsubmitted by the purchaser in satisfaction of the rebate claim.
 46. Themethod of claim 45, wherein the receipt is a paper receipt.
 47. Themethod of claim 46, wherein the copy of the receipt is a paper copy. 48.The method of claim 47, wherein the extraction step is performed by afulfillment administrator.